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Major brand ads still slip into unsavory YouTube videos

Youtube Rego Korosi via Flickr CC

YouTube has been found to run ads from major brands like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Amazon.com, and Microsoft on at least five videos with racist and anti-Semitic content, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some of the companies told the Journal they're suspending some or all of their advertising with Google.

A week ago, Google apologized after reports showed that U.K. advertisers were appearing alongside such videos

Ad tech reality: It's important to remember that with programmatic advertising, this is almost inevitable as ads are distributed onto content via automated software, not human curation, and software isn't perfect yet. And as Flurry founder Sean Byrne noted on Twitter, programmatic ads are usually placed on non-premium content, which means ads are bound to land on less-than-desirable videos.